Thursday, January 02, 2014

Somalia & Somaliland : The Year 2013 in Review

By Bashir Goth

The most heartwarming initiative that happened in Mogadishu in 2013 was the
start of an inspirational reconstruction momentum thanks to the city’s
energetic and ambitious mayor Mohamud Ahmed Nur Tarsan. If he continuous
with this vigor and commitment aimed at restoring the beauty and glory of
Mogadishu, Tarsan will be the person to watch in 2014.

It is encouraging also to see the vital role played by the diaspora
returnees who are investing heavily in rebuilding the city not only in the form
of pouring money into business but also in bringing back creative ideas and
breathing a new life into the morale of the people. There is no doubt that the
Somalis with their renowned entrepreneurial skills that created lucrative
businesses in many parts of Africa as well as in Minnesota, London, Dubai and
elsewhere can and should make Mogadishu the pearl and commercial hub of the
Horn of Africa. After more than 20 years of ruin, misery and lawlessness, one
can see the undefeatable spirit of the Somali people who despite the forces of
darkness like Al Shabab who wants to keep the people under their destructive
and backward ideology, surge ahead in a promising effort to make the country
stand again on its feet.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Having said that, it was disheartening to watch how the government of Hassan
Sheikh Mahmoud squandered a lot of opportunities. The year 2013 began on a high
note for the Somali Federal Government (SFG) led by Mohamoud as the U.S
recognized Somalia’s government for the first time since 1991 when the country
slipped into chaos and eventually became a byword for a failed state. This was
followed by the UN Security Council’s decision on the partial lifting of the
decades-old embargo on selling arms to Somalia for a year. In a quick response
to this, President Obama decided to allow the provision of US military
assistance to Somalia.

But instead of capitalizing on the good-will of the international community
and taking measures to bolster domestic security, Mahmoud’s government started
globetrotting with photo shoots with world leaders as their biggest
achievement. Back home, Al Shabab continued to dominate the security situation
despite their diminished visibility on the streets of Mogadishu. To prove their
tenacity and to expose the vulnerability of Mahmoud’s AMISOM-propped
government, Al Shabab struck Mogadishu’s main court complex in April killing
about 30 people, while launching daring daylight attacks on the Presidential
Palace and the UNDP compound in the capital. Their attack on the Westgate Mall
of Nairobi was also to remind the world that no matter how much assistance the
International Community provided to Mogadishu, the key to the region’s security
still remained in their hands.

The government even mishandled the impromptu arrival of Hassan Dahir Aweys
who fell in the government hands as a windfall from Al Shabab’s infighting.
Aweys deserves to be sharing the same fate and cell with Charles Taylor for the
crimes he committed against the Somali people and for keeping the whole country
in cyclic violence for more than two decades. But the failure of the government
to yet bring him to court is sign of its unwillingness or weakness to serve
justice to the victims of this brutal terrorist and his affiliates.

EMBROILED IN CLAN POLITICS

In another apparent misplaced priority, Mahmoud’s government was embroiled
in clan politics which allowed neighboring countries to have a greater leverage
in resolving domestic issues. The agreement between Mahmoud’s government and
Ahmed Madoobe in Addis Ababa on the creation of the Juba region administration
showed the government’s inability to rise above clan politics.

The government also squandered the generous hand extended to it by the
international community in the form of a three year “New Deal” cemented with a
pledge of 2.4 billion dollars aid to boost the country’s economy and security.

The resignation of Yussur Abrar as the Central Bank Governor due to what she
called the government’s double-dealing behavior had damaged the international
community’s trust with the government and had put the fulfillment of the New
Deal into jeopardy.

The replay of the previous government’s dueling between the President and
Prime Minister and the unceremonious sacking of the PM by the President-bought
parliament had also thrown whatever hopes the people had in President Mahmoud’s
government being any different from its precedents.

It was again the appointment of the new Prime Minister that proved beyond
doubt that not every Somali child can dream to rise to the country’s leadership
unless she/he belongs to certain clans. Looking back at the succeeding Somali
administrations from independence until now with the exception of the
short-lived tenure of Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, one can see that the practiced
formula was always and still remains to be: “Kolla Rashiid, Kollar Rasaaq,
Inta kale, Ma rooti baa?” Weary of war and lawlessness, the Somali people
hoped for a new dawn with Mahmoud’s government but it seems Professor Ahmed
Samatar’s disconcerting observation of duopoly in Mogadishu is indeed carved in
stone.

As the year rolled to its end, it was somewhat amusing to see President
Mahmoud rushing to Nairobi to join other IGAD leaders who were trying to bring
an end to Africa’s latest civil war in Southern Sudan, while he left Al Shabab
to make a name for itself in grappling with the devastating clashes in Lower
Shabelle and Hiiran regions.

The
autonomous region of Puntland welcomed 2013 with bombast as the region’s president
Ahmed Faroole celebrated his 4th year in office but his chance for a second
term and the hope for the region’s change from clan-based structure to a
democratically elected administration hit a snag with the cancellation of the
municipal elections in July.

Although
the cancellation averted a civil war, it was the tropical cyclone that smashed Puntland’s
coast in November and killed scores of people and had devastated the
livelihoods of other hundreds that united the people again.

The
year ended with clan-nomination of Puntland’s new 65-member strong parliament
which is due to elect a new President on 8th January. The system of clan
nomination of representatives which took place in Mogadishu earlier and now in
Puntland, falls short of Somaliland’s experiment of a direct elected
parliament.

WOMEN’S CONTINUED PLIGHT

Somalia still remained to be a black hole for women’s rights. Rape and
violence against women continued unabated to the extent that Amnesty
International described it as “ongoing
epidemic”. The report cites that perpetrators of such heinous crimes
against women included government security officials, armed groups and members
of AMISOM. The government’s inability to halt the spiraling rate of rape and
violence against women and its appalling actions sometimes of incarcerating the
victim instead of the criminal makes a mockery of its otherwise commendable
gesture of appointing women to high political and bureaucratic posts such as
the deputy prime minister/foreign minister and the Central Bank governor as an
apparent cosmetic action aimed at appeasing donor countries.

Press freedom also continued to bleed heavily in 2013 as Somalia retained
its notorious position as one of the most dangerous places for media people to
work. It remained in the rank of the five worst countries in the world for
press freedom as per the 2013 report of
the Reporters without Borders.

Going to 2014, it has become obvious that the Somali people have the
resilience to rebuild the country but only if Mahmoud’s government liberates
them from the grip and fear of Al Shabab and provides them with badly needed
justice and a clean fiscal management.

SOMALILAND IN CRISIS

If one attached a name to 2013 in Somaliland it could be called the Year of
Roads. A number of initiatives were taken to mobilize the nation to
rehabilitate its old roads and build new ones. Most of the projects were
people-based although the government also contributed handsomely to them. The
plan to build the Buora-Erigavo road, the longest road in the country with the
most dangerous terrain, is indeed a highly ambitious and commendable
endeavor.

The year 2013, however, started with the country reeling from the aftermath
of badly handled municipal elections. Sporadic peaceful demonstrations, police
brutality, and heavy handedness against the press have been the main
spotlights.

Rape against women reached an unprecedented level as the Ministry of Health
reported that 104 rape cases occurred during 2013. What made the situation even
worse was that a number of the women were gang raped with impunity.

The political situation was dominated by the wrangling between the
government and the opposition about the possibility of holding a national
debate to evaluate the status of Somaliland after more 20 years since Hargeisa
declared its unilateral secession from Somalia.

The government and the opposition may have different motives for either
rejecting or accepting the debate, but one can feel that the unspoken agenda
behind the debate is to discuss nothing but the viability of Somaliland’s
secession. With thousands of youth graduating every year from the mushrooming
universities in the country and the non-existence of employment opportunities
for them, and with the majority of the population relying on remittances for
their livelihood, there is a great economic crisis in the offing. And also with
the improving situation in Mogadishu and the international community’s
recognition of the federal government and the sovereignty of a united Somalia
as a whole, Hargeisa found itself in the doldrums of a self-imposed political
isolation.

The problems we saw on the surface in Somaliland in 2013 such as the
deepening divide between the people on tribal lines, the water shortage in
Hargeisa and elsewhere, the rampant unemployment, the government’s failure to
attract foreign investment and its inability to provide relief assistance to
victims of natural disasters such as droughts and rains in far-flung areas of
the country, its lack of strategy and clarity of vision in dealing with Somalia
as well as its erratic actions regarding the banning of United Nations flights
at its airports and its prohibition of its citizens from using Somali passports
without offering an alternative, all these problems are just obvious signs of a
chronic economic, social, cultural, and political crisis that need an immediate
remedy before it is too late. The much talked about debate is therefore not
only necessary but timely to extricate Somaliland from its current untenable
situation.